Flutter under Google’s wings

Google has officially announced that it has acquired Flutter — a Ycombinator backed startup working to build a computer vision based hand gesture interface. The company has not disclosed the amount of money it paid for the startup (rumours estimate the deal at around $40 million), but the purchase could shed some light on the company’s plans for the future. In the past, Flutter has built technology to bring gesture recognition to several software tools and apps such as Spotify, Netflix, Grooveshark, Pandora and is now available as an extension for Google Chrome. It is designed for the PC and MAC, and won the Best App Award from the iOSAppstore in 2012. Flutter uses your laptop’s video camera as a gesture recognition tool — sort of like Microsoft’s Kinect device. Once that is done, the app can use your hand motion gestures to allow you to navigate your computer without using the mouse or trackpad. The acquisition may mean that advanced gesture recognition technology might be seen in-built on Google’s next generation of tablets and devices. The Google Glass seems to be a prime candidate for the adoption of gesture recognition technologies, since speaking to the glasses seems to be rather cumbersome. Flutter app on the market would remain active.